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Originally Posted by murdock
What's the method for working out an arrangement of a song? Do you work out the melody first followed by the chords? When does the bass pattern enter into the process? Is there a preferred way?
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I'm with allthumbs ... start with the chord, work your way out from there.
If you can see chords for what they really are -- a selection of 3 or 4 notes that scatter themselves the full length of the fretboard -- then it gets easier to 'see' the possibilities. It takes a while to get away from the idea that chords are compact little groupings of notes. They can certainly be confined like that, so that the human hand can grab them at once, but they're everywhere else too, and they do follow a pattern that stretches the whole length of the fretboard.
In case don't know, the
CAGED pattern that allthumbs refers to is the sum total of all the open chord positions that march up the neck for any major chord. The sequence is as the acronym implies: C shape, A shape, G shape, E shape and D shape. CAGED.
So look at an open C chord; the next C chord up the neck is the A shape barre chord; then comes the G shape barre chord (seldom used, difficult to hold); Then the E shape barre chord, 8th fret; then the D shaped barred chord (seldom used).
The other 11 major chords also conform to this pattern, but jogged out the appropriate number of frets.
Something to work on!